Brown's Daily Word 8/1/17

 

    Praise the Lord for the way that life is filled with unspeakable blessings and often accompanied by endless battles.  In and through Christ, life is always full of blessings.  Even in the midst of atrocities and adversities the Lord of victory always leads us in triumph.  Praise the Lord, for He is the Lord of wonders, mysteries and power. He is at work on earth in season and out season, performing and demonstrating His majesty and grace.  In the words of Charles Wesley, "He speaks and, listening to His voice, new life the dead receive."  He is our Eternal contemporary and companion.  In the words of Kari Jobe, "We are not alone".

    It is great blessing and marvelous thrill to be loved by Jesus and propelled by Him into His kingdom to love day by day under His grace and mercy, filled with His divine purposes.  Praise the Lord for this first day of new month August.  WOW!  Summer here in New York, the Empire State, has been splendid.  Praise the Lord for the way we can enjoy His simple yet profound gifts every day.  I am praying and trusting that you all are being blessed to the hilt wherever you might be, in travels , in labor and leisure, in work and at play with family and friends, in ministry and mission.  May we  all sojourn on this pilgrim's path knowing the Lord goes before as the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire.  He is our daily manna.  He is our daily bread and the he is the best wine we can ever have. . . His own body and His own blood.

In this dear world He is the One whose grace is sufficient for our need.  He sustains, strengthens, and compensates, and He Makes us walk in triumph.

    Alice and I have been having a sweet summer.  We have been working on our garden faithfully.  We praise the Lord how He sends the rain and sun brings about growth and harvest.  We walked on our old route yesterday.  The nearby corn fields look luxuriant, and some of the corn has grown tall - over 7 feet already.  The sweet corn has tussled on many farms round about.  We picked blueberries the other day from our favorite blueberry hills, and hope to get back for more this morning.  We planted several fruit trees and several berry bushes recently.  Praise the Lord for the great outdoors.  Praise the Lord for the good earth.

    Our church is getting ready for our annual summer Fish Fry.  This will be held this coming Sunday after the morning worship.  Our friends Ron and Barb Barnes are hosting this Holy Event.

    As I have been reflecting and praying this morning, I have been thinking about how so many of us have been battling with illness, pain, or suffering.  In her book Tramp for the Lord, Corrie ten Boom tells the story of an old woman she met in Russia in the time of the Communist persecution of Christians during the Cold War.  The old woman was lying on a small sofa propped up by pillows.  Her body was bent and twisted almost beyond recognition by the dread disease multiple sclerosis.  Her aged husband spent all his time caring for her since she was unable to move off the sofa … [The only part of her body she could control was her right hand, and with the index finger of that hand she had for many years glorified God by typing on a vintage typewriter beside her.]  All day and far into the night, she would type.  [She translated Christian books into Russian.]  Always using just that one finger—peck … peck … peck—she typed out the pages of portions of the Bible, the books of Billy Graham … and Corrie ten Boom … "Not only does she translate books," her husband said as he hovered close by during our conversation, "but she prays for these [people] every day while she types.  Sometimes it takes a long time for her finger to hit the key, or for her to get the paper in the machine, but all the time she's praying for those whose books she's working on."  [Corrie ten Boom writes]: I looked at her wasted form on the sofa, her head pulled down and her feet curled under her body.  "Oh Lord, why don't you heal her?"  I cried inwardly.  Her husband, sensing my anguish of soul, gave the answer.  "God has a purpose in her sickness.  Every other Christian in the city is watched by the secret police.  But because she has been sick so long, no one ever looks in on her.  They leave us alone and she is the only person in all the city who can type quietly undetected by the police."

    One day Corrie received a letter from that lady's husband that described the day she had gone home to be with the Lord.  The husband explained that the woman had worked until midnight that very night of her death, typing with one finger to the glory of God.  Who would have thought that multiple sclerosis could be a gift from God?    

   

    Has it ever occurred to us  that the very thing we  most want removed from our life might be the very thing God uses in the greatest way for his glory?  That was certainly the case in the life of the apostle Paul. What he tells us in 2 Corinthians 12 is that every believer should glory in his weaknesses far more than in his strengths, because it is in our weaknesses that Christ is most clearly revealed.  Glorying in our weaknesses distinguishes us from the world.  Have you ever noticed how unlike the world Christianity is?  The world wants to get to the top but Jesus tells us we are to be servants of all.  The world loves power, but God is made perfect in weakness.  The world seeks after wisdom, but God has called us through the foolishness of preaching to proclaim the gospel.  Paul had beaten, stoned, and shipwrecked, and, by the end of his life he must have been scarred, bent, and twisted.

    What distinguishes us from the world is not our gifts, strength, power, or intellect.  We can never argue the world into accepting Jesus Christ.  We can never be so impressive that the world will accept Jesus based on our say-so.  Rather, Paul says that Christ's strength is made perfect in our weakness.  If we are going to distinguish ourselves from the world, we had best embrace our weakness. Glorying in our weaknesses distances us from our strengths.

    I read about David Miller, a preacher of the gospel and an incredible man.  He has muscular atrophy, and this degenerative disease has slowly taken his muscle control.  His family has had to endure a great deal, but David has been faithful. He is never heard to gripe or complain about his illness, and he preaches as many meetings every year as any evangelist in the country.  David and his wife, Glenda, have a son named Josh, their only child, of whom they are very proud.  One day Josh Miller was riding in a car with a friend, and they had an accident in which he broke his spine at the C-5 level and was paralyzed.  David, who has endured physical weakness for many, many years, found the strength to encourage, love, and comfort his son with the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and speak to him of the graciousness of God.  That's what it means to display the power of Christ.

 In Christ,

    Brown

https://youtu.be/e8HgAVenbUU

Brown's Daily Word 7/28/17

    Praise the Lord for this sweet and sassy summer.  The Lord has blessed us with unceasing and torrential rains, drenching fields and mountains, hills and valleys,  ranches and farm lands, overflowing rivers, lakes, ponds, and waterfronts.  We have been in and out in very recent days.  I had a treatment this past Monday.  The Lord has been restoring and renewing me.  I had good report from my blood tests. We are scheduled to drive to Boston next week for my regular consultation with the doctors there.  We will be in Boston from the 3rd of August through the 8th.  We are planning to spend some time with our Boston Grandchildren going to Beaches and just hanging our with them and their parents.

    The entire family from Boston are coming down to New York to spend a week in a lake front house.  Thank to the kindness and generosity of friends and fellow sojourners with Jesus, Doug and Liz.  We are catching up with our garden, and are busy tilling, hoeing, and tending.  We are hoping to go out picking blueberries this weekend. 

    Sunita and her family are on their way to "Pure Michigan", to visit family and friends.  We are planning to spend some of the remainder of summer with our grandchildren and family.  May Jesus, who places the solitary in the families, bless all of your family gatherings, outings, camping, and celebrations.  May He bless our times of worship, praise, and celebrations.  Praise the Lord for the way He blesses us with simple and sacred gifts that we can share and invest in others and thereby enriching our life together.

    I was visiting with a friend over the phone today.  She is one of the very beautiful persons who loves Jesus and has served Him very well.  She is 86 years old.  She and her husband have been a source of great blessing to us and to the church. They have reached out to others with open arms, open hearts, and loving kindness.  Her husband died in 2003.  She has continued to remain faithful to Jesus all these years.  She is blessed with three brothers.  One of the brothers was diagnosed with a cancer in 1986 and given six weeks to live.  The Lord intervened, and her brother is alive and well.  He will celebrate his 91st birthday in September.  I like the Lord's report.

      The Lord is there 24/7, His wonders to perform.  He is with us in spite of our bloopers and blunders.  He is in our side because of Jesus, who, while we were yet in our sin, died for us.  We are getting ready for Sunday, the Lord's day.  We will meet for worship at 10:30 AM.  Plan to be in the house of the Lord wherever you might be in worship, celebration, and witness.

    Praise the Lord for the spectacular summer.  We get to celebrate the beauty of the Lord and the splendor of His creation, and enter into the presence of His majesty and His glory.  We get to celebrate His manifold blessings and bounties. We get to  be in the great outdoors, feasting and celebrating.

    One of the TV programs I love to watch is Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern.  Many programs I enjoy are on the Travel Channel and  the Food Network.  Some of you may have heard of Anthony Bourdain, a reality show personality on the Travel Channel, known for his shows called "No Reservations" and "Parts Unknown". He is a chef who travels around the world to eat various foods, so there is an episode  set in Dubai, which is part of the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East, where he's sitting with some guys from the UAE around a low table.  There's one common dish loaded with meat, rice, and yogurt.  Everyone sticks their hands into this dish, balls up some of the rice, grabs some of the lamb, and eats it with the yogurt.  They all share the same dish.  That is much closer to the way they ate in Jesus' day, unlike the way we eat in Western culture, where everyone has his own plate, knife, and fork.  In the West people don't like to share their food.  In Jesus' day, you'd break some bread off of a loaf and use it to scoop food out of the common bowls in the middle, as they do in Dubai.  In Jesus' day, when you ate with people, you really ate with people.  It wasn't just about the food, but friendship and acceptance.  Who you ate with said something about you, and likewise, who you refused to eat with said something about you.

    Jesus was traveling, on the move, and when he passed through a town, he would pick out someone to eat with.  I love the incredible account that is recorded in Luke 19 in which Jesus was traveling down to Jerusalem with a crowd to celebrate the Passover feast.  Of all the houses in Jericho, of all the people who Jesus could have picked to stay with, he chose a guy whom others would avoid.  His choice caused a scandal.  As Jesus entered Jericho with the crowd, our focus is drawn to a tax collector in the town.  Everybody in that day hated tax collectors, probable even more than we disdain the IRS today.  Zaccaheus  was probably one of the richest people in the neighborhood.   It is written, [Zacchaeus] was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small of stature."

    Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus but could not because of the crowd, so "he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way."  In fact, he climbed a tree, as our grandson Simeon would do.  Zacchaeus didn't care what the crowd though of him.  He shed his dignity, because he just wanted to see Jesus.  Not only did Zacchaeus see Jesus, but Jesus saw Zacchaeus, too.  Jesus looked up to see this fully grown, wealthy man up in a tree, and he called him by name.  He said, "Zacchaeus, come down.  I'm going to stay at your house."  Zacchaeus was ecstatic to open his home to Jesus.  Jesus invited Himself to Zacchaeus' house, where they were going to sit  and break bread together.  This encounter and the social transaction, caused quite a scandal.

    What the crowd saw when Jesus went to Zacchaeus' house was simply that Jesus had gone to be the guest of a sinner.  They react with confusion because of all the people to eat with, why would Jesus be associating with Zacchaeus?  What took place that day was a miracle of encounter with Jesus, who is life, who is the embodiment of grace and mercy.  When we come face to face with Jesus,, who reflects truth but also offers grace, who heals and restores, something powerful is bound to happen.  The crowd of people sensed that power although they did not know how to make any sense of it. The  encounter with Jesus brought about a great transformation in the life of the tax collector, who had previously loved money and used people.  Real transformation ushers in a great change in the life of one who was dead in sin.  The Lord brings about the change from within and with out.

    The changed man Zacchaeus is uncontainable, unstoppable, unafraid and unashamed.  "And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, 'Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.'" His was genuine movement.  This is what happens when God moves in. Zacchaeus' perspective on life was significantly altered through his encounter with Jesus.  His life was no longer about just him.   When we  give our heart to Christ in a new way, we must anticipate these things as they bubble up to the surface. We can expect a new heart of generosity,  a heart of hilarity and self- forgetfulness. After Zacchaeus stood up and made his announcement of generosity and restitution, Jesus said, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.  For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

    By calling Zacchaeus a "son of Abraham," Jesus was saying that Zacchaeus was indeed in the line of promise—the promise God had made to Abraham hundreds of years earlier.  Zacchaeus was in the line to receive all of the blessings promised to Abraham and his children.  He was no longer cut off, despite the poor choices he had made.  Jesus said that he came to seek and save the lost.  He came to restore the lost, like the shepherd seeks to save the lost sheep, or the woman who loses a coin searches her house until she finds it, or the father welcomes home his son who has wandered far in rebellion.

    This whole event which found Jesus in Jericho, headed to Jerusalem, took  place just a week before the Crucifixion, one of the last things Jesus did before he went to be crucified.  I think that when Jesus says, "the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost," he is speaking not only to Zacchaeus but to everyone around. That is the mission he is on—to search out and restore the lost.

 In Christ,

  Brown

https://youtu.be/HPBmFwBSGb0

Brown's Daily Word 7/15/17

    Praise the Lord for the sizzling yet at times soaking summer season.  The weather forecasters are announcing that the summer season is almost a third spent.  Praise the Lord, for the Lord of all seasons engulfs us with His blessings,  beauty and splendor.  We have spent much of July so far with many of our children and grandchildren.  We have spent days mostly outdoors gazing at the beauty of the Lord and learning to look at life in and through the eyes of little children.

    Janice, Jeremy, Micah, Simeon, and Ada from Boston could not come down during our July gatherings.  Janice has been selected to do Graduate Studies on Health Care Administration at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire so the family stayed in Boston.  They are coming down to New York in August instead.  We can't wait! Sunita, Andy, Gabe, Addie, and Asha stayed with us in New York for almost two weeks. and are back in Washington, DC.  Tom, Jessica, and Lindy are back in Philadelphia awaiting the arrival of their baby boy in August.  Laureen spent two weeks with us here in New York and just left to spend some time with Jessica in Philly before traveling back to Washington, DC.  Praise the Lord for the way He is with us in our travels and He is "King of the Road" and our eternal companion.

    We had some torrential rain storms yesterday afternoon.  Our main street in Marathon suddenly surged with  flood waters which soon became a ravaging river.  Our local rivulet turned in to a ferocious river with climatic waterflow pushing anything and everything on its floating screams.  It is calm and quiet today.

    It is Saturday, but Sunday is coming.  We will meet for worship at 10:30 AM tomorrow.   Plan to be in the house of the Lord wherever you might be.  Let us all gather with all the saints around the corner and around the globe  in shout, praise and worship.

    It is always a thrill and a blessing to know that Jesus loves us and to trust in His promises.  What a blessing to be called by Him, drafted into His Kingdom as His servants.  It is a joy and privilege to be called into His Kingdom and propelled into His service, knowing that His Kingdom shall never fail.

    So often we as Christians define the Christian life in negative terms.  We describe Christianity by saying what it is not.  We say a person is a Christian because of the things they do not do.  We sometimes hear people remark, “He is a Christian man.  He does not smoke, he does not drink or swear.”  Christianity, however, is not a matter of what we do not do; it is a matter of what we do.  When Jesus Christ returns as King and we stand before him, he will  say, "Well done, good and faithful servant!  You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”  (Matthew 25:23)   His rewards will come to those who were faithfully at work using the abilities God gave them to make a difference in this world.

    An ancient fable tells about three merchants who were crossing a desert.  One moonless night they came to a dried-up creek bed.  As they approached, they were startled to hear a voice speaking to them out of the darkness.  The voice commanded them to pick up stones and then journey on as far as possible before stopping again.  The travelers were also told that when daylight came and they saw what they had gathered, they would be both happy and sad.  Even though they were confused by what was happening they did what the voice told them to do.  Each man picked up some of the rocks and placed them into his bag.  When the first gray streaks of dawn appeared in the eastern sky, the men looked into the bags where the rocks had been placed.  But instead of stones, they discovered precious jewels. It was then they understood the meaning of the strange yet significant words, “You will be both happy and sad.”  They were glad because of the precious stones they now possessed, but they were sad to think they had not picked up more!  I believe that is what it will be like at the end of our lives.  We will be glad that we at least did something for God with the time and abilities we had, but sad that we did not do more.

    At the judgment we will be blessed by the rewards we are given for the good we have done, but sad that our reward is only five minas when it could have been ten. We will wish that we had lived our lives for God and others, rather than living them so much for ourselves.  William Barclay says, “There is no such thing as standing still in the Christian life.  We either get more, or lose what we have.  We either advance to greater heights, or slip back.”  The thing that makes all of this so lamentable is the tremendous potential of the human spirit when it is filled and empowered by the Spirit of God.  How much our lives could mean for God if we were investing them in his kingdom!  God has given us each all that we need to serve him — it is we who hold back.  Often we are worried we won’t have enough money, but when we are faithful with what we have, we will receive more.

    A.W. Tozer, in his book "The Pursuit of God" says, “The widest thing in the universe is not space, it is the potential capacity of the human heart.  Being made in the image of God, it is capable of almost unlimited extension in all directions. Christians should seek for inner enlargement....”  I don’t believe we have any idea what our potential is.  If we begin to use what God has given us and begin to act according to what we already know, we will see and feel ourselves begin to grow in ways that we did not think possible.  Our Lord Jesus  said, “For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him” (Matthew 25:29). The sin of the unfaithful servant was not that he did what was wrong, but that he did nothing at all when he knew he should have been working for his master.

   In Christ,

    Brown

https://youtu.be/qQ71RWJhS_M